The family was driving on a highway when their car hit a blunt object that had been placed on the road, forcing them to pull over, said forensic police director Jose Gregorio Sierralta.

Spear waved down a tow truck, which stopped to help on the road between Puerto Cabello and Valencia in the state of Carabobo, Sierralta said.

But as the two truck workers operated the crane, five armed men emerged on the road.

The truck's operators fled to a police station about 1.5 kilometers (one mile) away while the mother and father locked themselves and their child in their car in a desperate attempt to shield themselves from the killers.

"The criminals fired multiple shots at the vehicle" before fleeing without stealing anything, Sierralta said.